


shadowkat | The Beast Below - Doctor Who Review and a bit on well cultural wars

by shadowkat67



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Doctor Who References, Episode Related, Episode Review, Literary References & Allusions, Meta, Multi, Reviews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-25
Updated: 2010-04-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22380352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowkat67/pseuds/shadowkat67
Summary: Episode Review of The Beast Below - Doctor Who, and a bit on US and UK culture wars.





	shadowkat | The Beast Below - Doctor Who Review and a bit on well cultural wars

What hits me about Doctor Who and Merlin - is the subtle cultural differences between the UK and the US, and there are several, but they are subtle and difficult to express in words. Yet do, I think, make it at times difficult for us to understand each other. I realized a major difference between the US and Europe - when the news stated that France and the Netherlands were prohibiting Muslim women from covering themselves head to toe. Yet, had no problems with nude beaches or scant attire. This is what ABC NEWS reported, not sure how true it is and it is the American media's interpretation. At any rate, the American response was generally - wait that's religious intolerance. Also in the US? We'd prohibit the nude beaches or make sure they were clearly marked. And the scant attire. We'd do the exact opposite of the French. Which is sort of amusing. Personally? I think people should be permitted to wear whatever they want within reason - ie, as long as they aren't hurting someone else or themselves by doing so. Of course the difficulty is it depends on how you look at it.

Let's face it, half of our problems stem from the fact that we just don't understand one another. At times I look at the world and what I see is this huge family tree with all these bickering siblings, some who aren't speaking to one another, some that have declared all out war, some who have decided to do an intervention and take over their sibling's life because let's face it the kid is screwed up, some who are just insane and all the others talk about in hushed whispers, others who are speaking but sort of have declared a truce - ie, you stay out of my business, I'll stay out yours, you help me, I help you, and we remember to send gifts and write notes on birthdays, plus do the whole family reunion thing whenever there's a birth, death, wedding or funeral.

Okay this post sort of got off topic. I wanted to talk about **Doctor Who**. It's a good episode not perfect perhaps, but I enjoyed it in some respects more than the first one. It's a story about a society that was dying, found a miraculous beast that could help it - and instead of trusting the alien creature to do so - trapped and captured it, then tortured it. The story is about one culture's inability to trust and understand another one. One that is seemingly alien to it. While the alien - is lonely, very old, and very kind, and manages to find a way to forgive them, and put up with it, just for the companionship and because it cannot bear to hear the children cry.

My difficulty with the tale - but I'm guessing I'm supposed to question this bit - is The Doctor. He like the Star Whale is very old, very kind, and very lonely. And his motto is not to interfer unless he hears a child cry. We know of course that this is not true. It is Amy Pound's perspective. In Amy's eyes - The Doctor is heroic. But as The Doctor states during the episode - how you view something depends on the angle. From one angle - the pusles are merely making the navigational system go faster. From another angle - the pulses are torturing the beast to go faster. The Doctor examines the evidence, is furious at Amy for choosing to forget in order to not let him make that impossible choice - continue torturing the beast and save humanity, or rescue the beast and kill humanity, or make the beast brain dead yet still carry humanity to it's new destination. Once again it is the Doctor's hubris and arrogance that gets the better of him. He tells Amy she's never allowed to keep information from him. That is wrong. He is after all - the one in control of this adventure. All knowing. And it is that arrogance that got him into trouble before. It's that arrogance and hubris that made the Time Lords obsolete. From Amy's pov - The Doctor is a hero, yet, is he?

Amy comes up with the way out - while the Doctor is busy inventing a way to painlessly kill the beast, end its torment, Amy thinks about the situation and observes the children. She pieces together the puzzle. And sees the heroism in both the Doctor and the Star Whale. They are both lonely creatures, the last of their kind, who are at the same time moved by the tears of children and interfer to aid them. Why children? Because we are in Amy's pov, and the Doctor interferred because he heard her, Amy, crying, and healed the crack in her wall and saved her and her friends from the beast that came through it. On the eve of her wedding, in which she is terrified, he shows up again offerring adventure. Her childhood friend from beyond the stars.  
Her childhood hero. She sees him through a child's eyes. And it is because of that - that she realizes what the Star Whale is doing, and that the best course of action is to abdicate control over it. To have the queen abdicate her reign. To stop torturing the pilot and let the pilot set the course. It's by letting go...that things fall into place.

But that's not the end of it. She realizes she has to tell the Doctor why she took off with him. She asks if he was every so afraid of something, something he had to do, that he chose to run away from it. Again - another reference to the Doctor's own choices. He ran from being a Time Lord. From the knowledge and the power. A long long time ago. Amy too is running - from her life on earth, being married, commitment. Much as Donna Noble ran. I have issues with this theme, since it is incredibly sexist. But in watching the episode, I caught other things - the ruler of the ship is Queen Elizabeth the 10th, who keeps choosing to forget, convinced there's no other way. She too is running. Yet not. She fights to remember each time. Just as Amy who chooses to forget, fights to remember. And together they put an end to the Star Whale's pain. While the Doctor states that he has had to deal with far worse things, but chooses to remember all of it, and not forget. Well that is except for the time when he became human and wished not to remember.

When we see the Doctor through Amy's eyes, we see a hero. And when we see the Queen through her subjects eyes, we see a hero. Yet from another angle they aren't heroes. And we look at Amy and in a way she's the true hero of the piece, the one who finds a way of forgiving them all, and perhaps even herself. Her last scene with the doctor is a touching one - and they hug. Her way of forgiving him for being late, and thanking him for coming. You are incredibly kind, she states, and incredibly lonely, but also flawed like the rest of us. We all make mistakes.

Interesting episode...I kept rewinding to get the dialogue, finally gave up and went with closed captioning.


End file.
